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Chatsubo


The Chatsubo, or simply The Chat, is the bar made famous by William Gibson in his 1984 cyber-punk masterpiece NEUROMANCER. The Chat is where the cyberjocks, razorgirls and joeboys came to gather information and kick back. Please feel free to do the same here.

by JoAnn Roberts - CyberQueen

"The Bible tells us to love our neighbors and also to love our enemies -- probably because they are generally the same people."
-- G. K. Chesterton

I have some good news, for a change, about the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE). Their annual convention, held this year in Toronto, Canada, was a rousing success. The success of the event was due in no little part to the tireless energy and efforts of Miqqi Gilbert, Pam Geddes and the rest of the girls from Xpressions, the local host group. Congratulations, ladies! But, I'll bet it was scads of fun when it was time for the Trinity Awards which were shared this year by Winslow Street Fund (WSF) chair Abby Saypen, WSF critic Judy Osborne, Sharon Saypen and Holly Boswell. By the way, no WSF grants were announced this year. The Virginia Prince Lifetime Achievement award went to Jamison Green, the first time the award has gone to an FtM person. Way to go James; it's one for the boyz!

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) took a full page ad in the Impact News, a gay/lesbian newspaper in New Orleans, attempting to refute the charge that HRC is transgender unfriendly. Recently, the Renaissance Transgender Associaton affiliate Gulf Gender Alliance stepped up a transgender boycott of HRC fund raising dinners. The boycott has been criticized by HRC supporters and by IFGE Executive Director Nancy Nangeroni. In the ad, HRC outlines its support of transgender issues citing things like working with GenderPAC and IFGE, and supporting transgender-inclusion in Hate Crimes legislation. Someone needs to explain a few facts to HRC:

  1. The transgender community's leadership is not represented by IFGE.
  2. The transgender community's political consensus is not represented by GenderPAC. and...
  3. This community's minimum political goal is transgender inclusion in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

I have to make an observation here. A few years ago, the future of the transgender community looked extremely bright. The nationals seemed to have settled into a cooperative mode of working programs together like the National Association of Social Workers conference as the Transgender Community Alliance (TAC). The first national transgender lobby day brought over 100 activists together to work for a common goal and eventually resulted in the attempt to create a political lobbying organization, GenderPAC. Today, I am sad to report, the notion of a unified community appears as elusive as ever. TAC is nowhere to be found. Participation between the nationals has dropped to zero. There are no plans to make shared presentations at any meetings or conferences. What little activity there is, is being done solo by one organization. GenderPAC has become a political embarrassment to the community. It is extremely difficult to even find the word transgender in GenderPAC PR these days and the "HTGIC" does not communicate with the community directly. Recently, I was told that a leader from a major national organization visited Philadelphia recently. If true, that "leader" made no attempt to contact the leadership of Renaissance which is based in Philadelphia. That, to me, is a major sign of disrespect and surely no way to build community. And that's what has me worried. I see few signs of cooperation, and even fewer signs of community building. Before it gets much worse, I suggest a summit meeting of the board chairs and executive directors of the community's nationals to work out a set of common goals and ways to work together to achieve them. It would be a step as major as that first national lobby day gathering but one with much farther reaching implications.

Dallas Denny recently penned a tirade against the Clarke Institute (Toronto, Canada) in these pages. In a nutshell, Ms. Denny complained that staff of the Clarke have infiltrated the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA) and are driving the development of the new Standards of Care (SOC) for the treatment of transsexuals. Denny believes that parts of the new SOC are, in her words, "unethical." She all but called the Clarke the Evil Empire. Far be it from me to say that opinion pieces have no place in public discussions, but this case was little more than a rant and an unprofessional piece of name calling that was very unbecoming of Ms. Denny. Meanwhile, the remnants of Ms. Denny's American Educational Gender Information Services (AEGIS) has announced it's merger with It's Time America! (ITA), a loose-knit coalition of state-level political advocacy and lobbying groups. The new organization will be called Gender Education and Advocacy (GEA). GEA will be a two-part organization; a think-tank that makes policy and state-level organizations that do the advocacy work. Sounds good on paper. The ITA local units have been doing a pretty effective job as grass-root organizers, but can ITA expand to an administrative and coordinating role? That depends on who is sitting in the Executive Director's seat. Can AEGIS switch itself from an educational resource provider to policy maker? That depends on who is making the policy? Our community needs a policy making body to help shape our political future. Let's hope that GEA has the integrity and foresight to bring together a diverse, eclectic and intelligent group of people to do that.

The Renaissance Spring Ball was not quite the success the Renaissance leadership had hoped for, but neither was it a failure. It turned out to be more of a Spring Dinner than a Ball, but the 40 or so people who attended had a great time. Renaissance Executive Director, Angela Gardner, handed out a few surprise awards for excellence beyond the call of duty. One of the honorees was Emily Sheldon, a longtime member and supporter from the very beginning of the organization. Ms. Sheldon is one of the key people responsible for seeing that members get their newsletter each and every month. It's not a glamorous job but one that needs to get done. Look around your own organization and take the time to thank those who do the grunt work. Most organizations would collapse without them.

If you've been wondering why I've not mentioned any of the transgender Usenet newsgroups, it's because they are generally useless and a waste of time. If a newsgroup hasn't yet been overrun with x-rated spam, then the participants seem to be arguing about the most inane aspects of transgender life. For the most part the flame wars fall into three categories: transsexuals vs. transgenderists -- which is better; transgenderists and transsexuals vs. crossdressers -- which is better; and someone called Laura Blake against everyone else. If you come across Ms. Blake online, avoid her at all costs. If you try to engage her in debate, you'll be in for a deluge of vulgar invective should happen to disagree with her.

Does this sound at all familiar? Researchers have discovered a new body-image disorder called muscle dysmorphia. It occurs among body builders (male and female) who, while impressively muscular, believe themselves to be puny, or in the case of women, too fat. Muscle dysmorphia is a form of body dysmorphia in which the person believes there is something horribly wrong with their looks despite appearing "normal" to everyone else and seeks cosmetic surgery to correct the imagined disfigurement. Go figure!

And now for the fashion news... Purple seems to be the color for Spring. Both Revlon (LavenDare) and Max Factor (Wild Lilacs) have complete lines based on purple hues. The Max Factor line centers on three colors: Wild White, Wild Blue and Wild Lilac, for nails, lips and eyes. I love Max Factor cosmetics because they're available in every drugstore and they're well made. And speaking of drug stores, did you know that if you buy cosmetics at Rite Aid and absolutely hate them, you can return them for your money back?

This came in over the net from our Shopping Queen, Jessica Brandon -- "I have a tip for you to share with all our sisters. I use Dr. Scholl's cushioned insoles (men's largest size) in all my shoes, but what I recently began doing is snipping off two inches from the toes of the insoles. I find that change makes wearing pumps and the like much more comfortable since my toes and the insole material aren't crammed together in the same narrow space, and it still maintains full cushioning for the rest of my feet. During a recent outing, I went over six hours in a pair of three-inch heels without so much as a twinge. Usually, I get no more than four hours before that happens." Thanks Jess for that great tip. You can read Jessica's shopping column every month here in TGForum.

There may be hope for the guys yet. In the May issue of marie claire they did a piece called "What Looks Sexier? Your choice or his?" Guess what? In three out of the four couples, "her" choice was more sexy/trampy and "his" was much more elegant. Only with couple number one did the guy's choice reveal more skin than the woman's choice, but even at that his choice was a long dress with an asymmetrical shoulder. Of the other three, only one was actually dressed sexy. She wore a very short tank dress with a bra top and high heels. The other two women needed help. One woman wore a black suit with a very short skirt, black hose and black spike heels. Very nice looking but not exactly sexy. The most outrageous outfit consisted of a very sheer long pink dress that showed all the wearer's underwear (black panties, green bra) topped with a grass green angora shoulder wrap... tres bizarre. Obviously these last two women need to be dating transvestites who could show them a thing or two about sexy dressing.

Here's another set of look 10lbs. thinner tricks... Wear suits rather than dresses. The more lines and seams you have, the less anyone will pay attention to not so perfect body parts underneath... If you must wear a dress, choose one with an empire waistline. These are very forgiving if you have slight a tummy bulge... Wear skinny diagonal stripes, the skinnier the better... Wear knits with a small textured pattern... Wear black. It's the simplest and best trick. Forget brown or navy... Avoid pleats of any kind. They add pounds... Avoid Lycra (I know it's tough). It clings and you have to be buff... Avoid mid-calf skirts... Invest in Nancy Ganz Bodyslimmers lingerie.

I almost never revisit a fashion subject but I have to let you know that I took Deborah's advice from the March column and visited the Total Shaving Solution website to order some of the shaving oil. At the Renaissance GPC meeting in March I overheard several girls discussing how great they thought the product was and figured I'd better try it, too. It really does work as advertised. I don't think I've had a cleaner closer shave in ages. Visit the site and request a free sample which should last you for three shaves and that's about all you'll need to be convinced.

I used to use Stagelight cosmetics contour powder that I bought in J.C. Penney's but then I couldn't find it any more. I stumbled over the answer in a recent issue of Allure magazine. Stagelight went out of business, but Alcone cosmetics, a theatrical supply house in New York City will match any Stagelight product. Call 718-361-8373. In case you're at all interested, the hottest eye color of the minute is white.

When I think of full lips I invariably end up thinking about Goldie Hawn and how she had her lips temporarily filled with saline for the movie The First Wives Club. Then there are the other actresses who have bovine collagen injected every 6 months or so to fatten their lips. Now, however, there's a surgical technique that can give you full, luscious lips and it's reversible, too. Called the V-Y technique, the inside of the lip is pinched into a "V" and the lower portion of the "V" is stitched to make a "Y" which pushes the lip forward and plumps it. Most patients have the procedure on their upper lip but it can be done to the lower as well.

So, those are my opinions, but, hey, what do I know? With some of the "friends" I have, I don't need enemies! Comments? Write care of this publication or email them to CyberQueen@cdspub.com.

© 1998 by JoAnn Roberts

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